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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[pron 1] (2 October 1869 – 30
January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist,

and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the
successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He
inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit, meaning great-souled or
venerable), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used
throughout the world.[2]
Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained

in the law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the
bar at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he
was unable to start a successful law practice, Gandhi moved to
South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit.
He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. Here, Gandhi raised
a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for
civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set
about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest
against discrimination and excessive land tax.
Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921,

Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding
women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity,
ending untouchability, and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule.
Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a
mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in
a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and
undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political
protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians,
Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the
400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for the
British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times and for
many years in both South Africa and India.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious

pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim
nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims
within British India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence,
but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a
Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many
displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new
lands, religious violence broke out, especially in
the Punjab and Bengal. Abstaining from the official celebration of
independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to
alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook
several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of
these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948, when Gandhi was 78.
The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defence of both
Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in India.
Among these was Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu
nationalist from Pune, western India, who assassinated Gandhi by
firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in
Delhi on 30 January 1948.
Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi

Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day
of Nonviolence. Gandhi is considered to be the Father of the
Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement
and in several decades immediately after, he was also commonly
called Bapu, an endearment roughly meaning "father".
Early life and background

Parents
Gandhi's father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885),
served as the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar state.[3][4] His
family originated from the then village of Kutiana in what was
then Junagadh State.[5] Although Karamchand only had been a clerk
in the state administration and had an elementary education, he
proved a capable chief minister.[5]
During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two
wives died young, after each had given birth to a daughter, and his
third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third
wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844–
1891), who also came from Junagadh,[5] and was from
a Pranami Vaishnava family.[6][7][8] Karamchand and Putlibai had
four children: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–1914); a daughter,
Raliatbehn (1862–1960); a second son, Karsandas (c. 1866–1913). [9]
[10] and a third son, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [11] who was
born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri), a
coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the
small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of
the British Raj.[12]
In 1874, Gandhi's father, Karamchand, left Porbandar for the smaller

state of Rajkot, where he became a counsellor to its ruler, the
Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than
Porbandar, the British regional political agency was located there,
which gave the state's diwan a measure of security.[13] In 1876,
Karamchand became diwan of Rajkot and was succeeded
as diwan of Porbandar by his brother Tulsidas. Karamchand's family
then rejoined him in Rajkot.[13] They moved to their family
home Kaba Gandhi No Delo in 1881.[14]
Childhood
As a child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as
mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite
pastimes was twisting dogs' ears."[15] The Indian classics, especially
the stories of Shravana and king Harishchandra, had a great impact
on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, Gandhi states that
they left an indelible impression on his mind. Gandhi writes: "It
haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times
without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with truth and
love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters. [16][17]
The family's religious background was eclectic. Mohandas was born

into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family.[18][19] Gandhi's father,
Karamchand, was Hindu and his mother Putlibai was from a
Pranami Vaishnava Hindu family.[20][21] Gandhi's father was of Modh
Baniya caste in the varna of Vaishya.[22] His mother came from the
medieval Krishna bhakti-based Pranami tradition, whose religious
texts include the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, and a
collection of 14 texts with teachings that the tradition believes to
include the essence of the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible.[21]
[23] Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother, an extremely pious
lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her daily
prayers... she would take the hardest vows and keep them without
flinching. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to
her."[24]
Gandhi (right) with his eldest brother

Laxmidas in 1886[25]
At the age of nine, Gandhi entered the local school in Rajkot, near
his home. There, he studied the rudiments of arithmetic, history, the
Gujarati langu

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[pron 1] (2 October 1869 – 30

January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist,

Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained

Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921,

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious

Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi

Early life and background

In 1874, Gandhi's father, Karamchand, left Porbandar for the smaller

The family's religious background was eclectic. Mohandas was born

Gandhi (right) with his eldest brother

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